Letter to the editor:
William Galston’s commentary on Hillary Clinton’s infrastructure proposal (“Making Our Roads ‘Shovel Ready,’” Politics & Ideas, Dec. 2) belies a misunderstanding of U.S. infrastructure policy. Mr. Galston urges the creation of a new infrastructure bank, but the U.S. already has such a bank. It’s called the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (Tifia) credit facility within the U.S. Department of Transportation. Tifia staff screen transportation project proposals to ensure they are sound and of national and regional significance, as per the law, before a taxpayer-backed loan is made. There is no need for a new bureaucracy. Instead, Tifia should be improved.
Mr. Galston could have noted that the current highway-funding reauthorization measure before Congress would instead cut Tifia funding by as much as 80%. That would likely stunt private investment in U.S. infrastructure—a goal he extols.
Mr. Galston also conflates the funding of infrastructure with its financing. Infrastructure funding—the underlying dollars to pay back investors—must come from either user fees or some broader based tax.
The U.S. has an infrastructure funding problem, not a financing problem. Investors around the world are eager to invest in U.S. infrastructure once proper funding is in place. America’s main policy challenge today is to create the reliable funding streams, such as tolls, necessary to efficiently operate and maintain a vast, mature road network. That challenge is beyond the remit of any infrastructure bank.
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